


Less Ordinary

by Mireille



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:00:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26865556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mireille/pseuds/Mireille
Summary: Maybe he's misjudged Cap.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 9
Kudos: 36





	Less Ordinary

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a tiny little ficlet; I've been struggling with writing because *waves hands at the dumpster fire that is the US in 2020* and I figured this was a good way to nudge myself back in, since I miss it so.

Tony likes to think that he's a complicated man. 

There's a lot of his personality that's right out in the open, a side of him that could be summed up as "Tony StarkTM." It's enough of who he is that he can say that he doesn't give a shit what people think about him, what they see is what they get, and he's not _technically_ lying. 

Technically. 

But there's also a lot he keeps buried deep (his entire life before MIT, a good chunk of his twenties, and a few other things, all locked away where he doesn't have to look at them too often), and even more that he just doesn't tell people. Little things, mostly, like "I'm dying of palladium poisoning." Nothing too important. 

But he has layers, because he's complicated. Too complicated for ordinary people to understand him, in or out of his lab, and he's okay with that. 

More than that, he likes it, because if he's just somewhere above their level, it's not really his fault when people don't get him. When they make it obvious that Tony Stark is an acquired taste, and they've decided they'd rather not acquire it. 

He's giving Clint shit one day after one of Cap's training exercises--getting back just as much shit, and realizing that Clint Barton is probably also an acquired taste, from the looks the two of them are getting from Cap and Bruce--and somehow, the conversation turns to, "It's good to be me. Women want me, men want--well, a lot of them want me, too. I think the conventional wisdom is ten percent, but I'm pretty sure it's more like fifty, in my case."

"It's good to be rich enough that no one makes you admit that you're deluded," Clint shoots back.

Tony's about to tell him that's what he has Rhodey for (not to mention Pepper and Happy, but they get paid for it), but a movement at the edge of his vision stops him. 

Cap's shaking his head, and while he's not speaking loudly enough that Tony thinks he wants it to be heard, Tony can see his mouth shaping the word, "Tony." (Of course Tony can lip-read his name. The only thing worse than being talked about is _not_ being talked about, like the saying goes, and he needs to know which is happening.) 

Tony would think that he'd just annoyed Captain America for about the fourth time this morning, but the other man just looks a little sad, like he didn't just hear what Tony said, but also everything that was behind it, the part of Tony that's aware of how much of his self-image is based on utter bullshit. 

That annoys Tony enough that he loses his train of thought for a second, because what happened to "too complicated for ordinary people to understand"? 

Cap has never given the impression that he thinks all that much of Tony. Hell, he's made it clear a time or two that he thinks Tony's nothing but a shallow dilettante, in this for his ego's sake, and Tony hasn't made a serious push to change his mind. 

But here he is, acting like he saw through Tony, and it just made him sad. 

And that's when Tony realizes that Steve Rogers, super-soldier serum aside, might not be all that ordinary. 

He's going to have to take a minute to work out how he feels about that.


End file.
